The British Museum has loaned one of the Elgin Marbles for the first time.
A headless depiction of the river god Ilissos has been sent to Russia to go on display in St Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum until mid-January.
It is one of a number of relics acquired by Lord Elgin in Athens in the early 19th Century, now known collectively as the Elgin Marbles.
Ownership of the artefacts, once part of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple, is disputed by Greece.
It maintains that Lord Elgin removed them illegally while the country was under Turkish occupation as part of the Ottoman Empire. The items have remained in the British Museum ever since.
End Quote Neil MacGregor Director, British MuseumThe greatest things in the world should be... shared and enjoyed by as many people in as many countries as possible"
Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said it was a "very big moment".
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This is the first time ever that the people of Russia have been able to see this great moment of European art and European thought."
Mr MacGregor added that he hoped the Greek government would be "delighted".
"I hope that they'll be very pleased that a huge new public can engage with the great achievements of ancient Greece. People who will never be able to come to Athens or to London will now here in Russia understand something of the great achievements of Greek civilisation."
'First great museums'Mr MacGregor said the British Museum was a "museum of the world, for the world", and nothing demonstrated this more than the loan of the sculpture to the State Hermitage Museum to celebrate its 250th anniversary.
In a blog for the museum's website, he wrote that the British Museum had opened its doors in 1759 and the Hermitage just five years later - making them "almost twins... the first great museums of the European Enlightenment".
The British Museum was today "the most generous lender in the world", he said, "making a reality of the Enlightenment ideal that the greatest things in the world should be seen and studied, shared and enjoyed by as many people in as many countries as possible".
"The trustees have always believed that such loans must continue between museums in spite of political disagreements between governments."
He added: "When our colleagues at the Hermitage asked if we might also make an important loan to celebrate their 250th anniversary, the Trustees immediately answered yes.
"And no loan could more fittingly mark the long friendship of our two houses, or the period of their founding, than a sculpture from the Parthenon."
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